The detox for me was not at all a shocking and surprising experience because during my time in the military high school, we did not have any electronics after school hours. I did, however struggle a bit about my other classes and homework, but I managed to incorporate them in the eight hours by practicing piano and reading. I could not have done the detox on a Friday because it is a family day, and I had to use electronics. I had instead pushed it on a Sunday because I can utilize my time in that day like exercising and other activities. I also wanted to talk to friends during my meals so that is a plus.

In conversation with “The Machine Stops” by Forester, I did not feel as isolated as Vashti or the rest of the world. Quite the contrary, I felt more open and connected with society and the NYUAD community. Even though the premise of the whole novella was about the isolated world with people and their living conditions, I feel as though it has not been the case for me even with the long hours of no electronics during the military high school. The only news we, as military students, could have gotten was from our teachers and officers. I remember when Felix Baumgartner did the free fall from space experience, and we did not know any of what was going on until the next day when our Arabic teacher had told us. There might be some disadvantages from being away from electronics, because we can get the “newspaper” effect where we would receive news from the previous day.

All in all, I felt that it was a good experience having to get a break from all the campus drama and stress from social media.